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As I’m sure you’re aware by now, the new Darkmoon Faire is in town for the week.

The Darkmoon Faire offers all kinds of fun little games to play, achievements to…achieve, and quests to complete. And of course, it brings along the focus of this entire expansion – yet another grind.

This grind doesn’t get you any end game gear though. Instead if provides a nice collection of pets (6), mounts (2), toys, PvE heirlooms, and gear from the past for all your transmogrification needs. Basically, this is Cataclysm’s version of the Argent Tournament. The major difference is that the DMF is only around on the first week of every month, starting on the first Sunday of the month.

The purpose of this particular post is farming for those heirlooms. Why? Because heirlooms are kinda “my thang”. You feel me? You know what I’m sayin’? You smell what I’m stepping in? Alright, let’s get to it then.

At the end of the article I have a summary of how many tickets it’s possible for you to farm so that you know what kind of schedule you’re looking at regardless of what items you’re farming for.

Minimum Requirements
I wanted to include this in the guide with the F2P community and the Gnome Clones in mind, though I’m sure some of you other players might like the heads up as well.

The regular daily quests are reportedly able to be done by a character of any level. I’ve heard people say you have to be level 10, other say there’s no level requirement. We have confirmed that you can start the DMF daily quests at level 1. You need to be level 6 to accept the quest that sends you there, but that quest has nothing to do with getting in or doing anything.

In order to do the professions quests, which can be done only once per Faire, you have to be the minimum level to have the profession (which is 1 for non-crafting professions, 5 for crafting). You also have to have a skill rank of 75 in order to open the quests.

For the Darkmoon Artifacts to drop for you in dungeons and battlegrounds you have to be at least level 15. Dungeon artifacts drop primarily from the final bosses in the dungeons though some are able to drop from others. The first artifact that I got was on the second boss in one of the new heroics, and all of the others have come from final bosses so far. Battleground artifacts come from the corpses of your opponents, so make sure you’re looting those insignia. Also, dungeon artifacts come up in the Need/Greed rolls while for battlegrounds to the looter go the spoils.

Archeology is the exception to the professions rule since it has a level requirement of 20. It also requires to you have a skill level of 75 and the quest itself requires you to have 15 Fossil Fragments to complete the quest. So not only do you have to have this profession, you also have to have spent the time leveling it and collecting specific fragments in order to do the quest.

So the minimum level I would suggest for seriously farming the Prize Tickets is level 15 since you have access to almost everything. Level 20 opens up one more monthly professions quest (Archeology) and then you’ve got access to all but the two artifacts that require you to be level 85. However, you can start this farming at level 1, so there’s no reason to wait if you have a fresh toon and the faire is in progress.

Through further research I have found that the A Treatise on Strategy artifact requires level 85 and so far all reports show that it drops only from level 85 Heroics, and typically from bosses whose names reveal them to be somehow related to a military calling such as Commander Ulthok, General Umbriss, and Admiral Ripsnarl.

Also, the artifact called Soothsayer’s Runes requires level 85 as well and is confirmed to drop in Tier 11+ raids. This one is unique then in two ways. First, that it’s the only one dropped in a raid rather than a dungeon. Second, that this one does not require a loot roll; instead, everyone in the raid who has a copy of the Darkmoon Adventurer’s Guide in their inventory will receive it when it drops and is looted.

Heirloom Prices
Before we get into how you go about farming these things, it’s important to know how much farming you’ll have to do.

Of the 25 PvE heirlooms that you can get from the Darkmoon Faire, 19 of them (chests, shoulders, one-handed weapons) require 110 Prize Tickets, the two trinkets both require 130 Tickets, and the two-handed weapons require 160 Tickets.

You cannot get heirloom cloaks or helms from the Faire, and no new item slots were opened in this patch so legs and rings are still unavailable all together (save the ring from the Kalu’ak tournament).

The good news is, these prize tickets aren’t that hard to get your hands on. The bad news is, the event is only around for the first week of every month which means you have a set window in which to do all of your grinding and your grinding potential is limited by the small number of available quests.

Questing for Tickets

Daily Quests: 40 Tickets per Faire
Questing is your main source of tickets. There are five daily quests that you can do, and each of those rewards a single ticket. You can do those daily quests eight times throughout the week, for a total weekly farm of 40 Prize Tickets. How do you do daily quests for eight days in a seven day week? You log on at 12 A.M. server time on Saturday night and do the dailies before 3 A.M. server time on Sunday morning when daily quests are reset. There’s your weekly exploit report, now back to our regularly scheduled farming guide. So 1 ticket per quest, 5 quests per day, 7(+1) days per week.

Blizzard quotes this as being available only seven times per week, but unless they put something in place to stop it, you can still farm an extra day’s worth of dailies during that three hour stretch each time it opens.

Monthly Quests:
Each month, once per Faire, you can do a quest related to each of your professions and secondary skills as long as you have at least skill rank 75 in that profession. Each character can have a total of six of these (two professions, four secondary skills) at one time. Professions reward 4 Tickets each while Secondary Skills reward 3 Tickets each.

For most players that’s going to be the final count on this type of farming. However, if you’re all kinds of serious about farming these heirlooms you can actually (ab)use the system here by leveling your primary professions to 75, doing their quests, dropping the professions, picking up 2 new professions, leveling to 75, doing the quests, drop the professions, rinse and repeat for all eleven professions. So crazy people can get a total of 3 tickets per quest, for all 11 professions and all 4 secondary skills, for a total of 45 prize tickets per month.

Other monthly quests include the Test Your Strength quest which has you collect 250 Grisly Trophies from targets you kill, and quests that start from all of the Darkmoon Artifacts that you get from dungeon bosses and looting insignia from opposing forces in battlegrounds.

[Update: Blizzard has confirmed that all of these are repeatable each month.]

There are a total of nine Darkmoon Artifacts: five from dungeons, three from battlegrounds, and 1 from T11+ raids. Each of these artifacts starts a quest which is simply turning the item in at the Faire.

So the grand total for Monthly Quests (not counting the dailies) is: 110*

I’m awaiting confirmation on whether or not Blizzard has put a stop to the dropping/repicking professions thing I mentioned above. If it’s gone, then 110 Monthly is the limit, while if it’s not you can add another 36 to the total.

Total Farming Per Month
This is the part of the guide that’s applicable to everyone who wants to farm the prize tickets, even if you have no interest in heirlooms. These are your total farming caps per month for you to determine how long you’ll have to farm to get all the items you want.

With 4.3 bringing the ability for us to transmogrify our gear to look the same, it’s time to step up the gear list.

Keep in mind that the point of the Gnome Clones, so far as gear is concerned, is primarily to look the same, so don’t feel like you’re required to go out and farm best in slot gear just because it’s on this list. If you already have your clone gear then you can keep right on wearing what you’ve got. Transmogrification simply allows you to use even better gear while still looking exactly the same.

The lists that follow include farmable upgrades for the items that are currently on the gear list as well as the literal best in slot if you’re interested in taking your clone to the furthest reaches of gnome twinking.

UPGRADE LIST

If you see an item with an asterisk (*) after its name, check the notes below the table before you go rushing off to get one, or you might end up wasting resources on a potential downgrade.

The head slot has two options listed because this is one of those times where “upgrade” is a subjective term. The goggles that are on the default Gnome Clone list has +9 Stam, +9 Int, and +9 Spirit making them the best balanced head piece you can get. However, there are two choices that are “upgrades” if you’re looking to maximize a stat rather than staying balanced. The Goggles give you a large Int boost if you want stronger heals/damage, while the Fishing Hat gives you a significant health boost for keeping you alive. You don’t necessarily need to upgrade to either of these items because we have a balance of Int and Stam already. If you’re looking to maximize one or the other, then these are your options.

The Spidersilk Drape isn’t necessarily an upgrade compared to the Tumultuous Cloak of the Sorcerer that’s currently listed in the gear list. It trades 1 Int and 4 Haste for 4 Hit. If you find that you need hit, this is your best/easiest alternative.

The Mechbuilder’s Overalls are nearly impossible to find. They have a 0.03% chance of dropping from four of the mobs inside Gnomeregan at the very best. The other six mobs that can drop them have a 0.01-0.02% drop rate. The “easiest” way to get these is to farm the Auction House hoping someone sells them who has no clue of their value. On the servers that I actively play on these sell for roughly 7,000g on the AH. Before 24 twinking was a big thing I usually saw them for 350-500g. Now that transmog exists I don’t expect to ever see these going for cheaper than that.

Mindthrust Bracers are another subjective upgrade. You lose some Int and Spirit and pick up some Stamina in return. These bracers are hard to find because they’re a zone drop with a max drop rate of 0.11%. However, these did get nerfed in the Shattering so they’re much cheaper on the AH now than they used to be. Pre-Shattering you could find these for 50-75g, these days you’re looking closer to 15-25g. They’re still good bracers, they just aren’t the fantastic bracers they once were.

Spidersilk Boots trade 1 Int and 5 Crit for 3 Stam. Some people might consider that an upgrade, and others might not. Whether or not I made the change would depend on my class and spec. As a Mage, I’d keep the Acid Walkers. As a Warlock, I’d only keep Acid Walkers if I were Destro. As a Priest, I would take the Spidersilk’s if I was healing, and I would consider Acid Walkers if I were Shadow.

Charged Gear are rings that the final boss of Gnomeregan drops (25%) that have a random enchant on them. There are three particular versions of this ring that you might be interested in: “..of Intellect” (+10 Int), “..of Stamina” (+10 Stam), and “..of the Eagle” (+7 Int, +6 Stam or +6 Int, +7 Stam). You can mix and match these however you want based on your own stat priority. Some people like the idea of +20 Int or +20 Stam from their rings, while others prefer to have +13/14 Int and +14/13 Stamina (the Eagle enchant gives +6 to one and +7 to the other, I don’t believe you can get a +7/+7). Others might even prefer going with +10 Stam on one and +10 Int on the other, or a +10 Int/Stam and a +6 Int, +7 Stam on the other. The great thing is they aren’t unique so you can really customize to your desires, the bad thing is you have absolutely no control over which version of the ring he drops and there are 30 different version of this ring available.

Other versions of the Charged Gear you might consider holding onto if you find them are “..of Arcane Resistance” (+17 Arcane Resist), “..of Concentration” (+4 MP5), “..of the Owl” (+6-7 Int, +6-7 Spirit), “..of the Whale” (+6-7 Stam, +6-7 Spirit). All of these can be useful in certain situations. Arcane Resist helps you against Mages and Boomkins while the others are mostly useful for restoring your mana.

The Arena Grand Master trinket is basically the trinket of twinks. The problem is, it’s freaking hard to get one of these. On some servers it’s not a big deal because nobody else ever goes for it, while on others you’re often looking at anywhere from 2-12 level 85 characters camping people who try to get anywhere near it unless you pay them each enough gold to leave you alone or buy their protection. The chest that this trinket comes from shows up every 3 hours on the 3rd hour (3, 6, 9, and 12 o’clock server time) and it’s right in the middle of an arena that auto-flags everyone who enters even against your own faction.

If you can get online during off hours, then you might have a chance at farming this on Durotan. You might be able to talk some AF members into helping you now and then if you need some protection, but with 130+ clones needing 12 chests each…this is a trinket to hope for, not one to count on.

BEST-IN-SLOT LIST

If you see an item here that has an asterisk (*) after the name or listed as a part of the price or something, be sure to check the notes below the table before you go rushing off to find the item as it could be a potential downgrade or have special requirements to obtain it that you may or may not be able to meet.

NOTE: This list only takes into account items obtainable by Alliance characters. True BiS would take both factions into account and require you to faction change as needed in order to get the literal best item for every single slot. I don’t think anybody here is that dedicated to their Gnome Clones, so I’m not going to go that far. If you really, really want me to because you’re obsessed with your Gnome and 24 twinking that much, I will. Maybe.

The Tattered Dreadmist Mask is the best helm you can get, though you can’t necessarily get it. If you don’t have a high level character on the server where your Gnome Clone is located, then you won’t be able to get this thing for a loooong time. The only option you have that doesn’t involve leveling or transferring a toon to the clone server is to roll your clone on your home server where you have a guild that can supply this helm and then use RealID with some of the members of your primary clone server. With 4.3 you can now use RID to group with friends and queue for battlegrounds in addition to the dungeons we could already do this with. You miss out on some of the social aspects of being with the other clones, but you can still participate in BG’s and LFG.

The Ancient Bloodmoon Cloak is just like the Mask above, except that it only requires a level 10 Guild. It still requires Honored reputation with the guild though, and getting that on a low level character is something that really shouldn’t even be considered unless you’re freaking crazy and you know it.

The Dignified Headmaster’s Charge can be purchased by 24 twinks by farming a crapload of Honor (5,250 Honor) and then converting it into Justice Points. You can also get it through the new Darkmoon Faire for 160 Darkmoon Prize Tickets. I do not have any information right now on how fast or how difficult it is to earn those tickets, so I can’t even estimate how long it might take you to farm 160 of them. Hopefully I can find a guide soon or experience it myself soon and can tell you then.

The Tattered Dreadmist Mantle is just like the DHC above, except that it’s slightly less expensive. If you’re doing the Honor > JP conversion you need 3,375 Honor to purchase the JP for it. These shoulders can also be purchased with 110 Darkmoon Prize Tickets, though again I need more information on getting those before I can comment on how hard it is to farm them.

The Tattered Dreadmist Robe is just like the Mantle above, with a cost of 2,175 JP (3.375 Honor) or 110 Darkmoon Prize Tickets. You could also consider the Mechbuilder’s Overalls as BiS if you’re looking for higher Intellect than Stamina. Both of these are strong contenders for the top caster chest, and which choice you go with is up to you based on your stat priority. I prefer to lean towards Stamina more than Int when I have two pieces that are this close, but that’s me.

Spidersilk Boots trade 1 Int and 5 Crit for 3 Stam. Some people might consider that an upgrade, and others might not. Whether or not I made the change would depend on my class and spec. As a Mage, I’d keep the Acid Walkers. As a Warlock, I’d only keep Acid Walkers only if I were Destro. As a Priest, I would take the Spidersilks if I was healing, and I would consider Acid Walkers if I were Shadow though I’d probably get the Spidersilks instead.

Charged Gear are rings that the final boss of Gnomeregan drops (25%) that have a random enchant on them. There are three particular versions of this ring that you might be interested in: “..of Intellect” (+10 Int), “..of Stamina” (+10 Stam), and “..of the Eagle” (+7 Int, +6 Stam or +6 Int, +7 Stam). You can mix and match these however you want based on your own stat priority. Some people like the idea of +20 Int or +20 Stam from their rings, while others prefer to have +13/14 Int and +14/13 Stamina (the Eagle enchant gives +6 to one and +7 to the other, I don’t believe you can get a +7/+7). Others might even prefer going with +10 Stam on one and +10 Int on the other, or a +10 Int/Stam and a +6 Int, +7 Stam on the other. The great thing is they aren’t unique so you can really customize to your desires, the bad thing is you have absolutely no control over which version of the ring he drops and there are 30 different version of this ring available.

Other versions of the Charged Gear you might consider holding onto if you find them are “..of Arcane Resistance” (+17 Arcane Resist), “..of Concentration” (+4 MP5), “..of the Owl” (+6-7 Int, +6-7 Spirit), “..of the Whale” (+6-7 Stam, +6-7 Spirit). All of these can be useful in certain situations. Arcane Resist helps you against Mages and Boomkins while the others are mostly useful for restoring your mana.

The Arena Grand Master trinket is basically the trinket of twinks. The problem is, it’s freaking hard to get one of these. On some servers it’s not a big deal because nobody else ever goes for it, while on others you’re often looking at anywhere from 2-12 level 85 characters camping people who try to get anywhere near it unless you pay them each enough gold to leave you alone or buy their protection. The chest that this trinket comes from shows up every 3 hours on the 3rd hour (3, 6, 9, and 12 o’clock server time) and it’s right in the middle of an arena that auto-flags everyone who enters even against your own faction.

If you can get online during off hours, then you might have a chance at farming this on Durotan. You might be able to talk some AF members into helping you now and then if you need some protection, but with 130+ clones needing 12 chests each…this is a trinket to hope for, not one to count on.

KEEP IN MIND
One thing you want to keep in mind as you gather your gear sets is something we’ve already addressed before – Hit Rating.

The amount of Hit that you need in PvP is very small, and unless you’re really getting serious about twinking in 24’s I wouldn’t even bother trying to get hit capped for PvP, much less PvE. If you want to cap your Hit for PvP, then you need 4% which is roughly +12 Hit Rating. You can get that from enchants, gear, consumables, or a combination of those. If you still need to consider Hit Rating, then I’ll refer you to my previous post Hit Rating Off Sets.

Cynwise talked before about some recommended PvP addons, SaySapped and HealersHavetoDie. These are extremely useful in BGs, and I want to echo my support for these. I’d also like to point out Psynister’s comment to change the Say-Sapped output to /y. The default is /s (white) which is so bland nobody will notice it. The ugly /y red text will get people’s attention.

But today I want to briefly talk about two three other addons for those that may want to min/max their PvP setup some more. If you’re UI is pretty close to default and you like it that way, I’d skip this article. The two addons Cynwise discussed are more than enough to be an effective Lilli.

First is a great addon called BattleGroundTargets. Think of it as Grid/Vuhdo, except for enemy players. Displays small class-colored health bars for every enemy in a BG (and only in a BG). It can be configured to show emblems for your target, your focus and the player carrying the flag. Finally, displays the role of each enemy according to their spec, and you can even sort by role so that the healers are grouped at the top.

BGTargets is fairly straight forward to set up, just be sure to move the 10v10 and 15v15 displays to the side of the screen and down (resizing to smaller if needed) as the default location is a little silly. If you run battlegrounds on upper-level characters, also resize and move the 40v40 setup, as you’ll have to make it pretty small to fit it comfortably.

The second addon has no visual component, instead the addon speaks directly to Lillis. Literally. GladiatorlosSA uses text-to-speech software to “say” when enemies are using certain spells. At max level this addon requires significant setup as the built-in options are pretty huge. Luckily, in the 24 bracket there are just not that many classes with massive burst/survivability spells, so we can strip out all the unnecessary information and stick with the meat.

After downloading GladiatiorlosSA, go through each tab in the menu and unclick every spell. If you do higher level PvP, it may be worth your time to fully customize the addon, but for the 24 bracket we have exactly two pieces of information we want to hear. Trinkets and Big Heals; these are the only selections you’ll want to keep checked. If you play Arena, set the trinket announce to “PvP Trinketed Class” on the Special Abilities tab. The stock setting is just to announce “trinket” and that is the only setting outside of arena, still very useful information.

“Big Heal” is the second major piece of information you’ll want to hear about, as every Lilli can do something about it. It announces “Big Heal” as the enemy healer starts casting a slow, massive heal (i.e Greater Heal for Priests). This is more than enough notice for Mages to Counterspell. Priests and Locks may not be able to get a Fear off before that heal is cast, but that’s not the big benefit for them. If an enemy healer has the space to cast a big, slow heal, they need to be dealt with post-haste as they are about to completely reset the battle. Fearing them out of the area accomplished this; as does throwing some dps at them to shift their focus.

[EDIT]

OK, thought of a third addon, BG Defender, that will help the Lillis both of the battlegrounds we play in. This addon is amazing for quickly getting information out to pugs.

Above is the small UI component for BG Defender, which will only display in battlegrounds. This addon works best in Arathi Basin, Battle for Gilneas, Eye of the Storm and Alterac Valley, the node capture battlegrounds, and in Tol Barad. It’s also situationally useful in Warsong Gulch and Twin Peaks.

If you were guarding Stables in Arathi Basin and saw three enemy players heading your way, hitting the “3” above will output in BG chat: Stables 3 Incoming. Calling incoming and clears never got easier. The only option to configure is to uncheck “Display BGDefender before each message”.

Warsong Gulch (WSG) has always been one of my favorite battle grounds. I can’t really tell you why that is, though I’m sure it has something to do with its small size and the its simplicity, or maybe it’s because I spent many of my summers growing up playing capture the flag at Boy Scout camps. Either way, it’s time to look at the basics of our primary battleground.

Battleground: Warsong GulchNumber of Players: 10 Alliance, 10 HordeTime Limit: 25 minutesPrimary Objective: Capture the enemy flag three times within the time limitContingency B: Capture more flags than your opponent within the time limitContingency C: Capture an equal number of flags as your opponent, but capture it more recentlyLocation Buffs: 2 Speed, 2 Berserk, 2 Restoration

Acronyms & Terms
“FC” – Flag Carrier (your team)
“EFC” – Enemy Flag Carrier
“FR” – Flag Room (your flag room)
“EFR” – Enemy Flag Room
“INC” – Incomming, alerting others that opponents are on the move
“Cap” – Capturing the flag by returning the enemy flag to your base while in control of your own flag
“Recap” – Killing the EFC and recapturing your flag, returning it to your base and your team’s control
“2nd/On 2″ – The second floor of either base
“Roof” – The top floor of either base
“Mid” – Midfield, the vast open area full of large tree stumps
“Ramp” – located at stage-left of each base, leads to both the 1st and 2nd floor of the base
“GY” – Graveyard for either team, located stage-right of each base, opposite the Ramp
“Tun’ – The tunnel leading to/from both bases, located at the north and south ends of midfield
“Healing Hut” – Located in front of each graveyard, contains a spawned Restoration buff (Health & Mana)
“Zerk Hut” – Located in front of each ramp, contains a spawned Berserking buff (Increased Damage, Decreased Armor)
“Side Room” – A small room attached to the flag rooms, stage-left, at the “top” of each tunnel
“Zerg/Zergging” – A large portion of either team, moving together as a group in an attempt to overpower
“Turtle” – Pulling the majority of your team into your base to maximize defense
“Camping/GYC” – Positioning yourself near the enemy graveyard, to attack immediately after they ressurect

FC and EFC refer to players, the ones who have control of the flags. People usually use these in order to ask where a flag carrier is, or to inform others of where the flags are. Often used in conjunction with other terms and acronyms from this list. “EFC TUN” for example, means that the enemy flag carrier is in the tunnel, expressing to your team that they should move to the tunnel to intercept.

FR and EFR are locations, most often used to communicate how much defense is in the flag room, or the location of the FC or EFC.

2nd, On 2, and Roof are also locations, typically used to express the location of FC/EFC or the location of incoming assault groups. 2nd and On 2 both refer to the second, or middle level of the bases. This level has a small open portion that allows ranged advantage onto the ground floor. Roof is the third and top level of the bases which have access to both the ground floor of the flag room as well as the second floor, and the open area between the roof and tunnel that is used to reach the roof in the first place. You’ll often see these used with INC calls as well. “INC TUN” means enemies are coming to the flag room via the tunnel, “INC RAMP” means they’re coming up the ramp, and so on.

Cap is usually used to let the FC know that the EFC is either dead or about to die so that they know to begin moving to the flag spawn location in order to capture the flag before an opponent can sneak in there and run away with it again. It’s also used by impatient players a way similar to “GO GO GO!!!” which is freaking annoying and will cause me to shank you.

Recap is used to communicate that people either need to go to offense in order to recapture your flag, to let your team know that you’re about to recap the flag, or to alert others that the flag has been dropped and needs to be clicked on to recap before an opponent does.

Mid, Ramp, GY, and Tun are all used to communicate areas of the map, most often associated with the location of the EFC or the intended path of your FC, or to call out large packs of opponents. “Going GY, Move to assist” means I have picked up their flag and I’m going to bring it back by moving through the opponent’s graveyard and/or that side of the map in order to return it to our base, and that I need help bringing it back so you should start pushing to that side of the map to help me.

The other terms I think are fairly explanatory, so if you have any questions leave them in the comments and I’ll give some more details. If you see any big ones that I left out, mention those too so we can get them added.

Unwritten Rules
Despite its simplicity, there are a lot of things about WSG that players have no means of knowing without doing some kind of research or experiencing it themselves. In terms of PvP, one of Blizzards greatest failings is that they give players no information on how to play the individual battlegrounds. So here are the unwritten rules that come to mind for WSG:

You cannot carry the flag while riding a mount.

You cannot carry the flag while under the effects of immunity.

You cannot carry the flag in Stealth.

You cannot capture the flag if you do not control your own flag.

Your opponent cannot capture your flag while you control their flag.

If you are carrying the flag and you summon your mount, you will drop the flag the second your mount is cast. If you pick the flag back up, it will dismount you. You cannot, under any (legit) circumstances, carry the flag in WSG while mounted. Druids and Shamans can take on forms that allow them to move faster (Travel Form and Ghost Wolf respectively) while carrying the flag, and you can use whatever speed boosts your race/class/consumables provide you, but you can’t mount as the flag carrier.

While the Gnome Clones won’t have to worry about #2, it’s something that deserves mentioning for anyone else who happens to read this and for you to be aware of in case you’re facing opponents that this may apply to. The only class that I can think of that is able to grant actual immunity is the Paladin. If a Paladin activates their bubbles that make them immune to damage, they will drop the flag and cannot pick it back up until the effect ends (or is cancelled). If you have consumables that make you immune (there was a flask in Wrath that you could get that may or may not still be around), these too will force you to drop the flag. Now, I’m not talking about bubbles here like the Priest’s Power Word: Shield spell that absorbs a certain amount of damage, I’m talking strictly literal immunity to damage. Paladins can’t force their bubble on you if you have the flag, so no need to worry about that.

Picking the flag up while you are in Stealth will bring you out of Stealth, and using Stealth while you have the flag will cause you to drop it. Again, this isn’t a worry for the Clones since we don’t have Stealth, but it’s something to be aware of. If you see an enemy Rogue carrying the flag who goes into stealth and drops it, expect that he’s going to try to either Sap you or attack you, hoping to pick the flag back up before it despawns.

You can’t capture the flag unless you control both yours and your opponents’. What this means is, if the enemy has your flag then your flag carrier (FC) needs to avoid getting caught/killed (preferably with the help of a healer or two) while the rest of your team goes after the enemy flag carrier (EFC) to get your flag back.

The last item on the list is exactly like the previous one, except that you’re looking at it from the opposite side. Your opponent can’t capture the flag if someone on your team has their flag. The default action for most people in WSG is to kill the EFC and that’s it. Sometimes it’s better for you to forget about the EFC and instead go and grab their flag as fast as possible to prevent them from capturing. If the EFC is closer to their flag than you are, then you probably want to try to kill the EFC, but if you have the means to get ahead of them and get the flag before they can capture, then you’re doing your team a huge favor by blocking the other team from capturing. This is one of many examples of actions you take in PvP that wins games and doesn’t require you to do anything at all to your opponents.

Objectives and Contingencies
The object of WSG is to capture the enemy flag three times before they do the same to you. The first to three flags wins. Flag captures are the only thing that matter in this battleground. Period.

Because of the situations that I mentioned in the previous section that prevent you from capturing the flag, not every game is going to have three captures in the 25 minute window. To address that, Blizzard put into place some contingency plans.

If the time expires and neither team has captured three flags, then the team with the most captures wins.

If time expires and there is a tie, the team who captured the last flag is declared the winner. In PuG’s you’ll often hear people ask, “who capped last?” to know who wins in the case of a tie.

If time expires and there is a tie with neither team having captured any flags at all, then it is a draw and both teams lose.

The best, most rewarding way to win WSG is to capture three flags, so you always want to strive for this. NEVER stop going after your opponent’s flag, even if you know that 9 of them are waiting in the enemy flag room to kill you and you’re going to die in 0.000014 seconds after stepping foot inside. Always try for another flag capture.

If capturing three flags isn’t going to happen, then you want to make sure you capture the last flag. Group up with your team and push for the flag with all your might. Ignore battles in midfield, even if it means letting your friends die, and push for that flag. Stay together in a group and assist each other as needed in order to get the flag and bring it back for a capture.

Similarly, if you are tied and your team was the last to capture the flag then it’s very important for you to protect your flag carrier. The biggest piece of advice I can give you for this is to not chase after opponents if they withdraw. If they pull back, let them. The second you go chasing after someone rather than staying to defend your flag carrier is the moment that their Rogues and Ferals spring a stealthed ambush on your flag carrier and save their flag.

Helpful Hints

Speed Buff: a buff located in the tunnels that grants +100% speed for 8 seconds.
This buff is great for trying to either get to and from the flag really quick or getting from the tunnel to the roof or out to mid real quick – WHEN YOU’RE ALONE.

The most frequent noob mistake I see in WSG is people using this buff just because it’s there. Don’t ever leave your healers behind by grabbing this buff and then taking off. If you do, and I’m your healer, you can die. I don’t even care. If you leave your healers behind without a good reason for doing so and you die, you deserve it. Similarly, if you’re going into the base with a group and someone’s about to grab the flag, don’t get the speed buff for no reason; move toward the end of the tunnel instead and let the flag carrier get the buff so that you’re that much closer to capturing the flag that much sooner.

If you’re in your own base then you need to consider the location of the enemy flag before deciding whether or not to take it. If your FC is on his way to return the flag, leave the buff there for them to speed up the capture. If you have the enemy flag in your base and are waiting for a recap, then always take that speed buff when you see it so that the enemy can’t use it against you.

Don’t Leave Your Healers Behind:
I mentioned this in the speed buff above, but I’m saying it again here anyway. Never leave your healers behind unless doing so is the only way to score a crucial flag capture and you’re sure that doing so will achieve that capture. If you have buffs or consumables that increase your speed, don’t use them unnecessarily if your healers can’t keep up.

There are some exceptions to this, but they’re rare. In most cases, the only time this is a good idea is if your healers are drawing all of the enemy fire and they’re willing to sacrifice themselves to give you time to get away. If there’s no way you can win a skirmish, it might be acceptable to leave your healers behind in order to try for a capture. Maybe.

Use the Stumps:
WSG’s midfield is littered with large tree stumps from trees that the Horde have cut down in Ashenvale, which is the lore behind this BG and why it exists by the way. These stumps appear as though they block Line of Sight (LoS), but they actually don’t. You can’t physically move through them, but you can cast through them as though they didn’t exist. Since the Clones are all casters, this is one of the strongest advantages you have in this battleground. Melee has to go around/over the stumps to get to you while you can keep on casting unhindered. The stumps are fantastic for killing tunnel visioned melee. Just don’t forget you aren’t the only ones that can use them like that.

This same concept applies to the large wagons on the Horde’s side too, which we’ll talk about next.

Use Your Stature:
Being a Gnome does have its occasional perks. On the WSG map on the Horde’s side of the field there are four large wagons. Most races can’t interact with these wagons beyond using them in a way similar to the tree stumps or using various jumping techniques to climb on top of them. However, Gnomes and Goblins can both run under certain parts of these wagons, particularly where the handle connects to the cart. Both of those races can run under the handle where all the others have to run around the cart. This is a great place to break away from melee opponents or to kite opponents who can’t take advantage of that terrain like you can.

Shamans in Ghost Wolf and Druids in Cat/Travel Form love to think that they can follow you through that little hole, but when you’re shapeshifted the game uses your base racial size even if you look like you’re smaller and they still can’t use it. I think some of the potions/drinks that shrink you might let you fit under there, but I never see anybody using them on any kind of frequent basis.

There are a couple of other places that Gnomes can go that others can’t, but they’re a bit harder to describe in text than they are to just show you. I’ve been planning to put together a video for a few weeks now and just haven’t gotten around to doing it, but I’ll try to get it posted soon.

War Games
I think we’re getting pretty close now to having enough clones at level 24 that we can start seriously invading PvP. I’d like to start up some War Games soon to go over the basics in person. We don’t actually need 20 people for Wargames, I think we can do it with any number actually, but we can handle up to 20 per group.

War Games allow us to challenge each other to a PvP match. There aren’t any rewards for doing it, no achievements, or anything else. War Games are meant to be used for practice, teaching, and general fun.

Once we’re inside we can walk everybody through the map to get them familiar with it, show you where the buffs are and what kind of paths you might want to take when you’re going after the flag or trying to protect one, and so on.

After we’ve gone over the training portion, we’ll have everyone return to their base and we’ll do some practice runs fighting against each other and learning how to run the flag, protect the flag carrier, and bring down the opposing flag carrier.

When I first made the transition over to PvP, there was one major roadblock I had to overcome before they could really enjoy myself: death, in PvP, is not bad. I’ve been hearing/reading some comments around the Lillisphere that some of you are going through the same pains right now, so let’s discuss. People with a PvE background are trained to associate toon death with failure. Death means someone didn’t properly execute the plan, or that the plan itself is borked. It often coincides with group/personal drama, it’s just painful all around. But NOT in Lilliworld! How so? Excuse me while I break this down.

Why did they all go after me??(Or: How I learned to die productively in PvP)

When I was a kid I often heard “He’s just as afraid of you as you are of him”. Yeah, sure dad. That scary snake/rat/dog is afraid of me. I’m six, and a scrawny six at that…but of course he was right then, and he’d be right now. PvPers will naturally seek out and remove the largest perceived threat to their group’s success; good PvPers will work together to do this because coordinated burst on force multipliers wins games. Why? What’s a force multiplier? Stop making up words!!

Force multiplier is modern military jargon (for Gnomes, the best jargon) for a factor that dramatically increases the combat-effectiveness of the force as a whole; healers and controllers are the force multipliers in WoW PvP, no matter what bracket. In other words, every clone the pops out of the Clone-o-Tron 5000 is a potential force multiplier. An adorable, dancing force multiplier.

Think about it (no, not dancing Lillis). Priests have one of the better healer toolkits at 24, and every single spec has Psychic Scream, the only mass fear at level 24. Warlocks all have a spammable Fear, and access to the Succy’s Seduction (watch out, shares diminishing returns with Fear), Afflicition has an aoe magic damage taken debuff (for all Lillis to enjoy) and Destruction has an on-chance aoe stun and a short cooldown disorient. All Mages have spammable Sheep, a ranged interrupt, an aoe freeze and slow. Fire mages have an on-chance instant-cast stun, Arcane has a blanket silence while Frost has two more aoe freezes (one of them ranged). Oh yeah, and Arcane and Frost do more damage to frozen targets, no matter who freezes them. We are a threat and we wear magic toilet paper. We will be targeted, and we will revel in all the attention.

Now that we’ve accepted we are going to die (a lot) how can we make the best out of each death? Most PvP battles are decided by the team that can put the right force is in the right place at the right time; our job is to disrupt the enemy’s ability to coordinate. Pulling key players out of position at crucial times is often the best use of your death, make them choose between finishing you off and executing their strategy. As casters line-of-sight object are our best friends. Keep a look out for objects to dance around when casting, knowing that you can run around it if you get targeted. Melee will have to chase after you and casters will have to run back into LOS to start another cast.

When you’ve made the enemy so mad they leave our flag carrier to go after you as you ride up, you’ve doing it right. When you can hold four horde at a flag with persistent solo suicide runs, congrats you’ve provided our team a 3 player advantage for the rest of the map. Make every death a success and you will come to love PvP!

Ok, I died. Now what?

So the world has gone grey and there’s an annoying little clock counting down the time until you can DO SOMETHING again. Whatever you do here, just don’t get mad/frustrated/annoyed. There are much more than productive uses of your time. You have up to 30 seconds to breath and plan. Review what happened, and then decide on what you’re going to do next. Objectively run over the last battle in your mind, while taking a good look at your abilities to see what you could have done differently. Pop open your map to see where the Lillis are massing and decide where you will be the most useful. Call out how many horde were in the area you just died. Or say something encouraging to your team in /BG.

After all, it’s nothing personal, it’s just a job. It is the enemy’s job to eliminate priority threats. It is your job to be a threat worth eliminating.

These are the macros that we’ll suggest for the level 24 Gnome Clone Warlocks. There are five sections here, one for each of the three talent specs, a fourth to cover Warlocks in general, and Warlock pets get a section of their very own as well.

If you’re interested only in looking at the macros for your spec, you can click on one of the following links to jump to that section:

Here we’re going to talk about some of the basic features of the Warlock class and look at a couple of macros that can help you.

Fear: is your primary Crowd Control (CC) spell, sending your target running around in random directions for its duration. Fear is one of the strongest CC abilities in the bracket. At least, it is until some goober breaks the effect. Fear does have Diminishing Returns (DR) and it shares that with the Priest’s Psychic Scream ability. The first time they are feared it will last 8 seconds (or until broken), the second time is 4 seconds, the third is 2 seconds, and then they become immune to Fear for a time before the DR counter resets.

The DR is per target though, not per cast. So you can cast it on one target for an 8 second fear, then cast it on another for an 8 second fear, and so on. You can only have 1 target feared at a time, so casting it on a second target frees the first, but in the case of BG’s like Warsong Gulch, even a fraction of a second worth of CC on someone can be the deciding factor in the match.

In regards to damage breaking Fear, the threshold for that break is very low, so if you’re going to use Fear and then proceed to try to kill the target, you might want to consider applying your DoT’s right after the Fear cast and then using a nuke rather than following it up directly with the nuke which is more or less guaranteed to break your Fear. So Fear > (Unstable Affliction) > Corruption > Bane of Agony is usually the safest bet for applying a damage rotation to a target without breaking Fear early. If you really want to make people mad you can follow that rotation with Fear > Shadow Bolt > Fear > Drain Life > Soulburn/Soul Fire Macro (see below).

Soul Shards: are a secondary resource system for Warlocks. You have three of them by default, and you use them by casting Soulburn which causes various spells to act differently or more powerfully. The two most common uses in the 24 bracket are instant pet summons and instant Soul Fire casts. You can do this either by casting Soulburn and then casting the spell you want to modify, or you can combine them into macros like the following:

These macros take advantage of the Global Cooldown (GCD). Most spells, when you cast them, trigger the GCD which by default is a 1.5 second timer that prevents you from casting other spells. The other spells ignore the GCD which means you can either cast them and then immediately follow up with another spell, or you can cast a normal spell that triggers the GCD and then before the GCD is actually finished you can cast a non-GCD spell. In other words, spells that do not trigger the GCD (like Soulburn) allow you to cast multiple spells at the exact same time with only a single button press or click.

Soulburn is one of those spells that does not trigger the GCD, so activating this macro uses Soulburn and then casts a spell that benefits from Soulburn to get the additional benefit. In the case of Soul Fire, using Soulburn causes this spell to be an instant cast which is a really big deal since this is one of the slowest spells in the game and it hits really hard. I use this macro on all of my Warlocks, regardless of their spec or their level. It might not be my primary option for using Soulburn, but they all use this macro to have the option of casting an instant nuke.

In the case of the Summon [DemonName] version of the macro, Soulburn causes the summon to be instant cast, making it fast and easy to replace a fallen demon or to get a demon at your location in case you somehow get separated.

Soul Shards are regenerated in one of two ways: Soul Harvest or Drain Soul. Soul Harvest is a channeled spell that requires you to be out of combat to use, and it restores 15% of your life and 1 soul shard every 3 seconds for 9 seconds (so all three shards and 45% total life return), and it has a 30 second cooldown. Drain Soul is a 15-second channeled attack spell that deals damage (double damage if the target is at or below 25% health) and if you’re channeling it while the target dies you restore 3 soul shards.

I make a special effort to get Drain Soul on almost all of my targets before they die. If you’re casting nukes and you know that your target only has 15 health left and you just sent a Shadow Bolt at them that’s going to kill them, hit Drain Soul anyway and as long as it “hits” before Shadow Bolt’s damage finishes them off you’ll get your soul shards back.

Life Tap: is the Warlock’s source of mana return. They sacrifice their hit points in order to restore their mana. Use this when you need it, just be aware that you’re damaging yourself and your healers may or may not be able to give you free healing to make up for that. Don’t be afraid to use it, just realize the sacrifice you’re making and that this is a primary trait of the Warlock class and they’re meant to be able to use it. You life and die by your mana pool. To Fel with your own life source, if you can’t kill things then life isn’t worth living in the first place!

That being said, if you use Life Tap in LFG don’t expect your healer to heal you back up to full after you Life Tap. That’s not to say that they won’t, but you have several method of restoring your life such as Soul Harvest (45% heal), Drain Life (6% heal per cast), Health Stones (45% base life heal), bandages (up to 2,000 healing), and normal food. If you’re between pulls then expecting your healer to make up for your life tap is sending them the message that your mana is more important than theirs, which is ludicrous when you’re more than capable of healing yourself.

Pet Macros and Useful Information:

Warlock Pets get their own special little section because they’re such special little minions. Actually, they just have cool abilities that sometimes are better cast via macro than just letting them auto-cast. Most of the abilities that your pets have come already set up to be auto-cast, and while that’s fine for most things like attacks and taunts, some of your pets also have great crowd control or utility spells to cast as well.

Imp has a stamina buff similar to Priests, except that you have to be within range of the Imp to receive the buff. You won’t have to worry about the range if it’s your Imp, but the rest of your party will miss out on the stamina buff if they don’t stay close to you. You pretty much want this active at all times.

Voidwalker doesn’t have any PvP abilities at level 24, and his taunt makes no difference in PvP. You do want to turn off the auto-cast (by right-clicking it on your pet bar, or in your spell book under the Pet tab).

Felguard is the first of our macro-worthy pets. Pursuit is good and I would suggest you go ahead and leave this one on auto-cast unless you just want extra level of control over your pet (like me). I’ll show you how to macro it regardless, but I’ll leave it up to you whether or not you want him to auto-cast this one. Axe Toss is the main macro we’re looking at though as a ranged stun is fantastic in places like Warsong Gulch. And I definitely suggest you remove the auto-cast from Axe Toss so that he’s not stunning random people in midfield while the enemy flag carrier runs right past you.

[UPDATE: It appears that Wowhead may be wrong about which level the Felguard learns Axe Toss. Once we have confirmed the level, I will update this post to reflect what we find.]

#showtooltip
/cast Pursuit
/run UIErrorsFrame:Clear()

#showtooltip
/cast Axe Toss
/run UIErrorsFrame:Clear()

Since your pet is a separate entity from you, his spells and your spells do not share the same global cooldown (GCD), so you can macro his spells to yours if you want to create combination macros. For example, if you want to be more offensive you can macro his Axe Toss to your Shadow Bolt macro so that he stuns them for 4 seconds while you cast a Shadow Bolt/Soul Fire or apply multiple DoT’s and so on. If you’re super concerned with crowd control you can also macro his stun to your Fear spell for stronger chance of controlling them (especially if they’re trigger happy with their trinkets and break the stun but then miss the Fear cast.

Succubus also has a ranged crowd control ability in Seduction, which is essentially a channeled stun. Because I like to make frequent use of my Succy’s seduction spell I put her on Passive so that by default she doesn’t get involved in combat which makes her less likely to die and more likely to be wherever I need her to be to apply her spell. When I need to go offensive to help bring down a target, I use the default keybind (Ctrl + 1) to activate her attack on the target.

In the macro below I make use of the exclamation mark (!) to allow me to spam this macro to be sure it activates without breaking her casts early by pressing it too much. You can find more information about that in the Macro Primer.

As far as macros are concerned, I don’t have any particular Affliction-only macros beyond those that were already mentioned in the Macro Primer. Affliction’s signature spell is Unstable Affliction (UA) which is a powerful DoT spell with a fairly short cast time, and if dispelled the dispeller takes damage and is silenced for 4 seconds. I don’t think any class has a dispel that can remove UA at level 24 though, so that part probably won’t happen.

The first spec is the one that I use as Affliction. It focuses on strengthening your DoT spells in the first tier and your channeled spells in the second, and it gives you some self healing through use of Corruption.

The second spec is focused more on debuffs than damage dealing. You still buff your DoT’s significantly, but one of your major functions with this spec is to use Curse of Weakness (CoW) on every Rogue, Warrior, Feral, and Hunter you can find. With the Jinx talent your CoW reduces the rate that those classes generate their resources by 10% in addition to the 10% damage reduction that the curse already does on its own. When you’re facing a lot of physical damage dealers, this is one of the strongest spells and talents in the bracket for helping your team survive.

The final spec is a little bit of a combination of the two, trading Improved Life Tap for a single point in Soul Siphon which increases your channeled spell damage. If you’re going to go for the Jinx debuff, then you’ll need to decide whether you’d rather have this spec or the second one. Of the two, I’d probably go for this one because I tend to be more offensive, but you might get more use out of Improved Life Tap than increased channeled damage if you’re more a reactive/defensive player.

Demonology’s signature spell is Summon Felguard which is their unique pet who deals high damage, and has a charge ability as well a ranged stun. You can find macros for the Felguard in the Pets section up above.

Let me state right up front that I have almost no experience at all with Demonology, so I list these having no experience with them.

This first spec focuses on your pet, increasing their damage potential and giving you options for quick resummons as needed. With this spec you increase the damage of your pet by 15%, and 15% of your spell damage translates to healing for your pet. You also get a 2 minute cooldown that allows you to instantly resummon your pet if it’s killed. In the instance that your pet is desummoned for being out of range, you also have a slight cast time reduction and 50% mana cost reduction in summoning it again.

The second spec puts the focus back on you, starting with a 10% Stamina buff. You still have the increased pet damage, but instead of boosting your summon/resummon options you instead increase the effectiveness of the healing benefits of your Demon Armor buff.

The last option here is a mash up of the previous two specs, buffing both yourself and your demon. You get a 7% Stamina buff instead of 10%, and you get only a slight buff to your Demon Armor as you trade the extra points there for that 2 minute cooldown to instantly resummon your pet after it dies. You still buff your demon’s damage though you’re no longer healing him with your spell damage.

Destruction’s signature spell is Conflagrate which requires your target to already have your Immolate DoT on them before you can cast it. When you do cast it, Conflagrate instantly deals 60% of the damage of Immolate to the target. Talent points can also allow Conflagrate to apply a slow effect (see below). I have no particular macros for Destro that haven’t already been discussed.

This first spec is the one that I use on Lilliloki, and it’s focused purely on dealing as much damage as possible. Shadow Bolt damage is increased by 12% and it applies Shadow and Flame to the target which increases spell crit against them by 5%, then your Immolate damage is buffed by 20% and the crit chance of your Searing Pain goes up by 20% against targets at or below 25% health. Then you have Aftermath which gives your Rain of Fire AoE spell a 12% chance to stun targets for 2 seconds, and your signature spell Conflagrate has a 100% chance to daze your target. With this spec you get better instant-cast damage by buffing Immolate’s damage which in turn buffs Conflagrate’s damage, so that you can more easily burst on the move than having to stand still and spam Shadow Bolt.

The second spec drops crowd control in favor of trying to get more critical strikes from your spells. You lower Shadow Bolt’s cast time by 0.5 seconds and cause it to apply the 5% spell crit debuff I mentioned in the first spec, and then you increase the crit chance of Searing Pain by 40% on targets at or below 25% health. The point of this spec is to focus on a single target and burst them with repeated casts. Shadow Bolt is your primary spell with this spec until the target is at 25% health and then switch to Searing Pain spam to finish them off hoping for repeated crits from Searing Pain.

The third spec sticks primarily to burst damage with those same improvements to Shadow Bolt that you see in the first two specs, but keeps the crowd control benefits of Aftermath instead of increasing Searing Pain’s crit chance. This version requires you to do a lot more turret casting to get your burst damage off since you’re not buffing Immolate’s, and thus Conflagrate’s, damage. Instead the focus is on Shadow Bolt for damage using Conflagrate primarily for the Daze effect of Aftermath so you can take advantage of even more Shadow Bolt casts while the target is slowed and unable to get out of range.

As I’m sure any and all of our 24’s have noticed, trying to kill things in Gnomer kind of sucks when you’re constantly missing because the mobs are 4-7 levels higher than you. So today I’m going to list for you the options you have for non-BG clone gear that provides you with that valuable Hit Rating that you’ll need.

I’m still looking for the answer to how much hit rating you’ll actually need to remove your miss chance, but until I figure that part out, here are your Hit Rating options for your questing/LFG off set.